xbox mod for a noob?

im very new to xbox's. iv only ever played xbox 1 about 2 times in my cousins house and i've never even touched 360 until a few day ago. lol
its because i USED to be a playstation guy, but because ps3 is soo expensive i though F*** it im not paying that much for a console and then got myself a xbox core for £135 off ebay.
every playstation if had has been modded so i can play backups, and it was pretty easy especially with the psp.
iv been doing reading on how to play backups on a xbox 360, and i goto tell ya... man is there a lot to do for the xbox! lol
can someone tell me what i would need and have to do to mod my xbox 360?
i know i have the hitachi drive but not the exact model number, do i need to open the console for this?
please help!